1. Field
The field of the invention is agitating stirrers placed along with powdered solid food material and potable liquids into a manually shaken container for mixing.
2. State of the Art
Agitating stirring bodies are commonly used within spray containers having liquid components comprising paint pigments and solvents. Spherical balls about 1/4" in diameter are most commonly employed, either singly or in pairs. Typically, the agitators, pigments and solvents are sealed together into the spray cans during manufacturing, the agitators being ultimately disposed of along with the container. In some instances, one or more additional smaller spherical balls are used with the standard sized balls, to more effectively reach and stir into interior, acutely angled corners of the container, such as occur at junctions of bottom and walls. Mixing within these corners tends to limit the size and weight of the spherical objects employed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,236,262 discloses a circular disc shaped spray can agitator having a thin circumferential edge to probe into the acutely angled corners. The disc joins with a pair of central truncated cones in one embodiment and with a pair of spherical segments in another. The agitator design is essentially balanced about a center of gravity at its geometric center.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,623 discloses an essentially spherical agitator ball for a sealed spray container, the sphere however having a number of symmetrically placed ribs outstanding from its surface. The ribs are smoothly rounded, but join the surface of the sphere at sharp junctures. The ribs undoubtedly increase the mixing turbulence over that of smooth spherical balls. This agitator design is essentially balanced, with the center of gravity at the geometric center of the basic sphere. The ribs substantially increase the stirring turbulence produced in the shaken paint spray can. Many sharply defined rib to sphere and rib to rib interfaces create nooks and crannies in which powdered and liquid food would tend to be deposited during food mixing. These may difficult to dislodge and remove during cleaning between uses.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,974 discloses a multi-limbed mixing member. A central stem branches into perpendicular members near its center, and carries affixed spherical ball at one end. With many sharp interface angles, the disadvantage of difficulty in cleaning and washing for subsequent uses is present also in this design. The design is geometrically unbalanced, desirably increasing the turbulence when the container is manually shaken. This unbalance results in more random, more unpredictable, mixing motions by the agitator, a true advantage not found in many other designs which are geometrically balanced. The design also has a number of prongs to reach into interior container corners, as well as a number of flat surfaces. These provide opposed grinding surfaces to break up agglomerated lumps if used for food mixing.
Direct adaptation of spray can type agitators to mixing liquid and powdered forms of foodstuffs incurs several serious disadvantages. The need remains for easily washable, reusable agitation devices which can be used singly or in pairs to efficiently mix food in powder form with potable liquids.